Saffron

Worst. Meal. Ever. The dahl makni was yellow in colour, with no dahl in it and sweet! What?! When we first told them this doesn’t look like what we ordered, they said it’s «brick lane’s dahl makni». Erm. Ok. In the end, they took it off the bill. The biryani was edible. The butter chicken some yellow gloppy stuff and we could play Frisbee with the naan. No. Don’t do it. They should pay us for eating there. Argh.

Terrible. I arrived with great hope, after years of hearing about Brick Lane. All dashed. The watery gravies looked unwell, and have had the same effect on us in the last 24 hours. The best was subpar. The worst was dangerous. To top it off, the price was disproportionately high.
Stay clear.

Nachdem wir den Laden in der Brick Lane wegen des recht ansprechenden Äußeren ausgewählt haben ohne vorher mal im Internet nachzusehen, muss ich leider feststellen, dass die Küche tatsächlich nur unterdurchschnittlich ist. Der Service ist in Ordnung und die Preise auch im Verhältnis zur Portionsgrösse zu hoch…

I am not sure if my countrymen didn’t read the menu (the price of bottle water was posted) or they didn’t understand the exchange rate. This was the most inexpensive meal my wife and I had in London: two entrees, rice, glass of wine and bottle water for less than 30 L.
I agree the food didn’t rate more than an okay, I had better in other parts of town, I had better in Chicago. The staff was attentive and I don’t believe they were out to ripe-​off a tourist. It is a great place to people watch if you get a window seat.

Similar to Monique S I too had heard of Brick Lane’s curry houses and was eager for a real British/​Indian curry. I knew from the Unilocal there was a wide divide between the good and bad on Brick Lane but unfortunately when I showed up late one night, fresh off a plane and hungry with no phone ( Unilocal access) to help guide me, I chose based on 1) what was open, 2) general appearance and menu, and 3) # of others in the place.
The waitstaff was friendly and quickly offered water and poppadom. Only later did I learn that unlike the US, water and poppadom aren’t free. In fact 1 large unlabelled (therefore I thought it was tap) bottle was 6Gbp ($ 12).
The menu was standard Indian fare. I went with Prawn Masala, garlic nan, and aloo gobi. The ‘Prawn masalla was a major disappointment. Heavy on uninspiring sauce, light on tiny shrimp. More like a soup than a curry. I knows its a cultural language choice but there is no way you could call the shrimp ‘Prawns.’ An American ‘prawn’ is a colossus of a crustacean. These were the size of rock shrimp; tiny and a bit tough. The nan was decent with just enough charring on the chewy blistered bread. The Aloo gobi was as you would expect, just fine but nothing special. Another gripe, no rice? Is it a country thing? I had to ask for some white rice and of course there was a charge for it. An unreasonable $ 4 for a bowl of white rice!
Unfortunately I wasted my one free night eating here. $ 45 for a well below average meal. I would not go back.

This place is a prime example of why you should do your research before going in. My best friend and I visited here on our trip to London after hearing a lot of people rave about Brick Lane. We didn’t know which restaurant to go to so we picked Saffron because it «looked decent.»
The waiter offered us water without telling us that there was a charge for it. What looked to be regular water in a typical container was apparently bottled water. It ended up being $ 20 US for water!
The poppadom was ok and there was an additional charge for that. The chutneys were actually ok.
The Vegetable Jalfrezi was spicy but could have been a bit more dense. The basmati was moist but nothing to write home about.
Besides the sneak tactics with the water, the waitstaff was decent.
Next time I’ll do my research and go elsewhere.